At the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on August 28, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Thanh Hai proposed to clarify the tricks of profiteering from charity money and deceiving customers in cases related to Huan Hoa Hong and Hai Sapa.
This proposal is very necessary in the current context, when there has been and is a phenomenon of people's trust being turned into a type of "asset" to exploit on social networks.
Many accounts with millions of followers, regularly showing off wealth, doing charity or appearing with a heroic image, can easily create influence.
When that image is repeated for enough time, many viewers will naturally consider fame as a guarantee of prestige.
From that belief, they are willing to transfer money to donate to charity, buy perfumes, food and many other types of goods without checking the origin and quality.
Each person only buys a few products or contributes a small amount of money, but combined it can become a very large revenue.
Therefore, clarifying and publicizing tricks will become warning lessons for the community to identify how to build "fake prestige" by showing off assets, organizing purposeful charity activities in the media, using followers to lead crowds, advertising one way but selling goods another.
However, just warning people to be alert is not enough. We need to build a mechanism that makes profiteering behavior more difficult to implement and easier to detect.
Charity calling activities online need to be more strictly controlled, the mobilization, reception, and distribution of voluntary contributions are within the scope of regulation of the law, individuals standing out to mobilize must use private accounts, publicize the received amount, supported beneficiaries and expenditures.
The person standing out to mobilize must be responsible for the accuracy of the information and the proper use of contributed money.
For livestream sales activities, it is necessary to trace the identity of the seller, the origin of goods and the responsibility of the advertiser.
Social networking platforms, e-commerce platforms and payment intermediaries cannot only benefit from traffic and transactions but stand aside when consumers suffer losses. It is necessary to clarify the responsibilities of each entity in the online business ecosystem, corresponding to the role, level of control and legal obligations.
When online business activities have large revenue and signs of goods of unclear origin, inconsistent advertising information, consumer complaints or signs of legal violations appear, management agencies need to have a timely warning and post-inspection mechanism.
The disclosure of tricks must also be based on investigation results, evidence and compliance with the principle of presumption of innocence. It is necessary to clearly distinguish the prosecuted person from the convicted person, avoiding turning warning activities into online trials.
All towards the goal of no longer having a favorable environment for anyone to take advantage of online influence for profit.
The number of followers only reflects the level of attention, not proving honesty.
People's kindness needs to be respected and protected by transparency, responsibility and a management mechanism that is fast and strict enough.
